


On a Dark Road

by Judy_The_Dreamer



Series: Stand-alone Bingo Fills 2k19 [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Car Accident, Dark fic, December 16th 1991, Gen, Open Ending, Panic Attacks, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Very Dark Fic, car crash, graphic depiction of murder, multiple character death, nightmare elements, no happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:54:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21890011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Judy_The_Dreamer/pseuds/Judy_The_Dreamer
Summary: Tony is in the car during that fateful night. Nothing really changes.Beware of the tags!Stand-alone (scrapped from abandoned fic).
Series: Stand-alone Bingo Fills 2k19 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1418155
Kudos: 7
Collections: Bucky Barnes Bingo 2019





	On a Dark Road

**Author's Note:**

> I'll repeat once again: check the tags and the warnings before you jump in. This isn't for you if you want to leave with a good feeling.
> 
> This was originally part of a much longer fic that i abandoned about 50k in. I am currently working on a similar idea, but wanted to share some scenes I wrote. It also fits really well with the BBB prompt listed below. What can I say? I'm an opportunist.
> 
> Bucky Barnes Bingo 2019 - K2: December 16, 1991

Tony came to slowly to the beat of his throbbing head. He was pressed against a cold, smooth surface, but when he wanted to shift away from the unpleasant sensation, his legs refused to obey his command. An acrid smell invaded his nostrils, causing him to cough and jostle his head, sending a sharp pain through his temples. Groaning, he tried to open his eyes instead, but his eyelids had become heavy and unyielding. 

The car, he remembered getting in the car.. Jarvis getting behind the wheel. His mother sliding in next to him, patting his hand consolingly when Howard wasn’t paying attention and letting it rest there like a shackle binding him to the leather cushioning. Fastening his seat belt with a huff when Jarvis shot him a judgmental look through the rear view mirror. 

_ Must be cutting off my circulation. _

He wriggled his feet experimentally and felt some feeling returning to his legs. The movement pressed his head up closer to the coldness of what he now realized was the back passenger window. The ice cut through the fog in his head like a knife, finally allowing his eyes to fly open and Tony became aware of multiple things at once.

One, the car was up against a tree. The sturdy trunk had crushed a good deal of the front, shattering the windshield and dislodging the door on the passenger side. He couldn’t see Howard’s still form in the diffused light, but Jarvis was slumped over the wheel, unmoving. Tony didn’t want to think about what that meant just now, so he averted his gaze.

Two, his own breathing was too loud in the enclosed space of the car, his chest moving frantically up and down. Likely shock, his mind supplied, but Tony’s head was swimming too much for the realization to stick. Shoving the thought aside, he tried to focus outwards instead, registering the shaky respiration of somebody next to him. The front of the car remained eerily silent in comparison. Maria’s every breath seemed to be jerked from her body against her will, pained little sounds accompanying each one. Tony dimly wondered if her ribs had been broken. If he could only move over a little, he would be able to release her from the constricting embrace of the belt around her chest. He attempted to shift his weight against the window again. A sharp pain lanced through his chest, however, and he fell back with a cry. His ribs mustn’t be much better off than hers. 

Already exhausted, Tony leant back against the car window and pushed through the pain slowly, gritting his teeth. He saw how, in a shifting play of light, the opposite car window was obscured and Maria fell into shadows.

Three, there was movement outside. 

The young engineer became aware of soft mutterings floating in through the open passenger door. He pricked up his ears and tried to hear what was being said, fighting to keep his focus on the familiar baritone drifting in.

“What happened?” The words were faint, but the caused a wave of relief to wash over him..  _ Dad’s alive. _

Simultaneously the shadows moved again, away from Maria’s window and Tony understood suddenly that there was no way his father was moving that fluidly at the moment. The old man had sounded bone-tired, broken even, and the shadow seemed to be descending onto him like a bat from hell. Still no second voice, no comforting words that you’d expect from somebody delivering aid. Only pointed silence.

A loud groan rose up then like Howard was being moved rather unkindly and Tony held his breath in order not to shout out to him.  _ What’s going on, dad? Why are we here? _ He felt small like he hadn’t in years, a terrified little boy hiding in a corner. 

Howard seemed to be regaining some form of consciousness though, because his mutterings turned into actual words. “Sergeant Barnes?”

The shadow outside froze for a few blessed seconds and Tony’s mind raced to catch up with what his father was unwittingly telling him. Oh God, Howard had lost it completely. Was he clumsily attempting to comfort Tony with memories of the passion they once shared, before his son had grown wiser as to the bitter lie of it? Tony’s mouth filled with the same metallic taste as when Howard had discovered him burning his Captain America memorabilia in the fireplace. The hit had made the stars on Cap’s shield dance before his eyes. 

A dull thud broke through the night. 

_ Yes, _ the engineer thought,  _ it had sounded exactly like that.  _

Another thud and the crunch of bone.

Tony shut his eyes tight and prayed.

It kept on going.

He started counting back from one hundred, hoping to stave off the panic trying to claw free from his chest, but it only made him think of his unfinished project at MIT. Who was going to complete his baby, when even his father’s brilliant mind was gone?

Finally, the wet squelch of something heavy hitting muddy ground. 

_ Dad? _

In the heavy silence of the night, Tony could only hear Maria’s heavy breathing and promptly he was filled with another kind of fear. Because if he could hear her this clear, there was no way the thing outside couldn’t.

Tony opened his eyes to slits and peered at the window intently. The light had disappeared again, so the shadow had returned to block the window. Every muscle in his body tensed up, waiting for it to pass them by. For a few precious moments all was quiet.

Then in a great shower of glass the window burst and a metal fist efficiently cleared away the edges. Maria let out a pained shriek. ‘“Howard!”’

Desperation took hold of Tony and he willed himself to move, to wrench her away from the stranger and run, but his muscles refused to budge, limbs turned to lead. He could only watch as the metal arm – he could now clearly see how far the material extended – snaked back inside and returned to its task. Maria’s cries became choked and Tony found he couldn’t look away from the hand around her neck, squeezing tighter and tighter by the second. Until he heard something snap.

A muffled cry resounded inside the car and Tony belatedly realized it had spilled from his lips. Horrified, he watched the hand react with inhumane speed. One second it released his mother to slump backward in her seat, the next it ripped the car door clean of his hinges and a figure darted partway inside. The energy to scream returned to Tony in a clear wave of panic, but the sound barely had time to leave his throat before a hand closed around it. There it halted as if his would-be assassin was trying to figure his presence out.

_ I wasn’t meant to be here.  _

Time seemed to slow down in the enclosed space of the car as Tony followed the metal limb up to the shoulder and then the man it was connected to. His grip hadn’t become crushing yet, so Tony took a final shaky breath and looked his killer in the eye.

In the half-dark Tony had some trouble seeing him properly, but what he did see was pieced together like a puzzle until the complete picture was revealed to him. Stringy dark hair, broad jaw, lovely blueish eyes. It was a face that he’d seen a thousand times growing up, either suspended on his bedroom wall or in secret pictures locked away in his father’s desk. 

Despite the metal fingers staying immobile, Tony felt the breath leaving him all the same. ‘Holy shit. Dad was right.’

The fist tightened a notch in reaction, but Tony’s mind was catching up to the irony of the situation fast and before he knew it, laughter was bubbling up in his chest. That would be just him, though, becoming hysterical in the face of death. 

Stark men are made of iron, Howard had said. 

Bullshit, Tony was made of flesh and bone.

Startled, the shadow flinched away from the sound, fingers loosening incrementally and Tony gathered as much breath as he could. His shoulders were shaking unstoppably, he noted distantly, but his body was also gratefully making use of the adrenaline. With the assassin hopefully distracted for a bit – he didn’t want to spend any more brain power on analysing that particular reveal – Tony hooked his elbow in the latch of the door behind him, putting his weight behind it and releasing the lock on his seat belt.

In an unseemly tangle of limbs, the young genius tumbled down backwards out of the vehicle, neck safely out of reach of the metal arm. The Shadow grabbed onto his pant leg instead, halting the younger man’s legs from following him out. Tony cursed as he landed heavily, head hitting the wet pavement down below, an explosion of stars lit up the night sky one last time before Tony’s vision clouded over and he passed out.

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to suggest more tags and/or triggers that should be added, please leave them in a comment.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this dark snippet.


End file.
